After this 6-5 victory over the Rangers, Joe Girardi said that Alex Rodriguez had undergone an MRI on his sore oblique/lower back, and that it came back “clean.” So the Yankees will see how he’s feeling on Tuesday in Toronto.

His stand-in, Eric Chavez, didn’t do so bad in A-Rod’s place. He went 2 for 4 with the game-winning single in the eighth. So that means he’s batting .455, at 7 for 15. In his three starts, he’s 6 for 12. Chavez said he likes being complementary player as opposed to the focal point like he was in Oakland. He’s fine with the sporadic time, too.

“When I made the decision to come here, I knew what it was going to be,” Chavez said. “Obviously Alex is going to play a ton of games. When I get in there, I’ve got to be ready to play.”

CC Sabathia is still 0 for the season, 0-1 with three no-decisions despite a 2.52 ERA. He didn’t sound disappointed.

“This is a team game,” Sabathia said. “Our ultimate goal is to get to the World Series. These are the steps we need to take.”

Soriano bounced back with a one-hit eighth after experiencing a two-run eighth on Saturday. You have to wonder how he’s going to do if the Yankees get deep into October because he said after this one: “I think it helped that it was a little warmer today.” Soriano told Girardi that he won’t see peak velocity from him this month.

The Yankees continue to turn on the power. After three more homers, they now have 27 in the 9-5 start, a franchise record for the first 14 games. They scored 10 of their 14 runs in the three games vs. Texas via homers. They have scored 48 of their 77 runs for the season on homers. That’s 62.3 percent. Yet they still won this game on a single.

Derek Jeter had a single in four at-bats, so he’s 61 hits from 3,000. The Captain’s average is just .241, though.

Russell Martin hit his fourth homer. He had five in his injury-shortened 2010 season with the Dodgers, when he played in just 97 games.

Nick Swisher went 1 for 4 and is batting .526 from the right side, at 10 for 19.

Robinson Cano stretched his hitting streak to nine games with his second homer in two games. He’s batting .351 with five doubles, three homers and nine RBI during the streak.

Phil Hughes began his long-toss program. Larry Rothschild told Girardi it went well. Girardi was told Hughes “had some life on the ball.”

The Yankees took two of three from Texas. Doesn’t really make up for last October, does it? But that’s old news. The Yankees finished the homestand at 4-1. They have won four of their five series so far.